Metro News & Reviews

Transportation headlines, Tuesday, March 2

The L.A. Times has a story about one young woman who decided to overcome her snobbery against public transit and become a bus rider and then started a blog to chronicle her experience. Some commenting on the L.A. Times site, and elsewhere, have deemed the story as trite and condescending – implying that the plight of one midwestern transplant does not really represent the reality of riding transit in Los Angeles. I tend to disagree with that assertion though, because one of the realities of public transit in Los Angeles is that the vast majority of people view it as nothing more than a last resort. As long as that idea exists, the chances for the city to embrace transit like other great cities is unlikely. So the story of one woman confronting her preconceived notions of what it means to be a bus rider is a very important story to tell.

The L.A. Eco-Village Blog heads down to L.A. Live only to discover a conspicuous lack of bicycle parking. Amidst multi-million dollar parking garages, bikes could be found locked up to any old railing, fence or light pole – likely to the dismay of L.A. Live security. But designated and friendly bike parking? Nowhere to be found. For a development – paid for with the help of taxpayers – that is supposed to be part of L.A.’s denser, more urban and transit oriented future, the omission of basic bicycle parking facilities is disappointing.

Joel Epstein over at the Huffington Post channels Bob Dylan in hopes that Angelenos will rally together and get Congress to make Mayor Villaraigosa’s 30/10 plan – which involves an unprecedented bridge loan from the federal government – a reality. The gist of Epstein’s humorous post is that if all of L.A. doesn’t get behind this idea we’re going to be missing out on our future – a future that offers an alternative to bumper-to-bumper traffic. That’s something I think we can all rally for.

The rest of today’s headlines, compiled by the Metro Library, after the jump.

The Not-So-Fast Track For High-Speed Rail (Federal money is making high-speed rail possible, but state governments are unsure if they can afford to operate and maintain the systems once they are in place)
Stateline